e-AQUAF — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-09-27

This Privacy Policy describes how the e-AQUAF project ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, stores and protects your information when you use our platform at www.eaquaf.eu.

1. Information We Collect

• Account information: name, email address and password (stored hashed) when you register.
• Profile information: optional details such as organisation, country and professional role.
• Usage data: pages visited and features used, stored in aggregated or anonymous form.
• Cookies: essential, analytics, advertising and personalisation cookies, as described in our cookie banner.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To provide and maintain platform services (partner matching, project search, distance school).
• To personalise your experience and show relevant content and recommendations.
• To measure how the platform is used and improve it.
• To contact you about updates, security notices and support requests.
• To meet legal obligations, report to our programme funders and enforce our terms.

3. Atlas Usage Log

The e-AQUAF Atlas keeps an anonymous record of how its map is used. We need these figures as evidence for reporting to the Interreg Black Sea Basin Programme: how many people open the Atlas, which map layers they switch on, and how often they look up a spot or open a place or organisation.

This log never contains your identity. No user account identifier, IP address, full browser identification or search text is stored. Coordinates of a spot you look up are rounded to 0.1 degrees (roughly 11 km), so they show only a broad area, never an exact position. Searches are recorded as a count of results only, never as the words you typed.

• What is recorded: the type of action (Atlas opened, layer switched on, spot looked up, place or organisation opened, view shared, search used, timelapse played).
• Technical context added by our server: broad device type, interface language, whether the visit was to the live or preview site, and whether the request looks automated.
• If you accept analytics cookies, a random session identifier is added so repeated actions in one browser tab can be counted as a single visit. It is stored only for that tab and disappears when you close it.
• If you do not accept analytics cookies, no identifier of any kind is added, and your actions are counted without any way to group them.
• Only aggregated monthly totals are ever shown, to administrators of the project. Individual records are not published or shared.

4. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and browser storage in four categories, which you control through the cookie banner and can change at any time.

• Essential: needed for the site to work — signing in, keeping your session, security and remembering your cookie choice. These cannot be switched off.
• Analytics: help us measure how the platform and the Atlas are used, including the anonymous session identifier described above.
• Personalisation: remember preferences such as your language, theme and map settings.
• Advertising: used only if we promote the project externally; they are off unless you accept them.

5. Data Sharing and Third Parties

We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with:

• Service providers: Google (sign-in), secure hosting, backend infrastructure and analytics providers, under data-processing agreements.
• Consortium partners: anonymous, aggregated figures for project reporting to the Interreg Black Sea Basin Programme.
• Legal requirements: where required by applicable law or to protect our rights.

6. Data Security

We apply standard security measures including encryption in transit (TLS), hashed passwords, row-level access rules on our database and regular security reviews. Despite our efforts, no transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

7. Your Rights

Under the GDPR and applicable data-protection law you have the right to access, correct or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict certain processing, to withdraw consent for optional processing such as analytics cookies, and to complain to your national data-protection authority.

To exercise these rights, contact us at info@eaquaf.eu.

• Access, correct or delete your personal data.
• Object to or restrict certain processing.
• Withdraw consent for optional processing, for example analytics cookies.
• Lodge a complaint with your national data-protection authority.

8. Contact Us